[If you’d like to listen to the audio recording, Click the Spotify player at the end of this post.]
As Christmas was just on Saturday, I hope you took time in your day and reflected on the reason we celebrate Christmas. Now I said it last week, the most important thing about Christmas is belief in Jesus as the Christ. Why celebrate the birth of someone who isn’t the Savior…all the while calling it “Savior worship day” if you will. But in all our cultures and traditions. In all the countries of the world, families of every shape and size: part of this holiday involves gifts.
Unless it’s late or delayed for some reason, by now all the packages have been opened. The space under your Christmas tree is fairly bare. The stockings look flatter than they did before Christmas Eve. If you’re a kid, perhaps you now start the next big countdown: the countdown to your own birthday! The next opportunity for gifts.
But before we move on to the next season of gift giving, let’s slow down and look at a few of the elements left in the aftermath of Christmas. One thing that is left and one thing that occurs typically after Christmas. The first thing is the wrapping paper. The second is are returns.
Torn pieces of wrapping paper is the byproduct of a gift opening time.
And returns? Well we will dive deeper into gift returns in a few moments, but suffice it to say, gifts don’t always work out the way the given hopes. So returning the item for cash or an exchange of a similar item usually takes place. You don’t typically return something you love and appreciate. Something useful or with sentimental value. You return things you’d rather not have. Wrappings and Returns. These are the illustrative tools today that I hope will lead us into a deep connection with the scripture. Something we presently are dealing with that relates back to the story of the Gospel.
First let’s look at wrappings. What is their purpose and function in regard to a gift? How do they connect to the Christmas story?
Wrappings
Wrappings are on the outside. Of course they are! Unless you are gifting a box of gift wrap. Then they are on the outside and the inside!
Let’s try to answer the question: Wrappings, what’s their purpose?
What went into wrapping that gift?
- Effort
- Extra Expense – The wrappings are a cost on top of the cost of the gift you bought/made.
When a present is torn open…
- What happens to the wrappings?
- Destined for the trash can, recycling, or fire starter.
- I’ve heard of families and specifically dads who have the trash bag ready to catch all the wrapping paper. Other families just let it fly! After all the gifts are opened, then we will all pick up before enjoying the gifts. Which one are you?
- What was the point of the wrapping?
- They help conceal/disguise what’s really inside. (They build anticipation for a surprise!) Due to added expense or frivolity of special wrapping paper, it helps to make a gift more personal. You took time, money and effort just in the presentation of the present. Hmmm… I wonder if that’s why they call it that?
Wrappings help to conceal what’s on the inside. Build anticipation for the surprise!
Why Wrappings Matter
In Matt 2:9-11 we join the journey of the Wise Men already in progress.
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Matt 2:9-11 NIV
The Joy of the Good News was Wrapped in Gentiles. The Wise men were not Jewish. The did, however believe in prophecies and followed stars.
- They were not the people you’d think would be glorifying the king
- However, gifts from afar to a new or newish King was not unheard of. In his day, Solomon received tribute from people all over the region. They came seeking favor with him, seeking his sage wisdom.
- But Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh were the physical gifts they gave to a baby who could not return any favors. Could not (at the time) utter anything besides “goo-goo” and “gaa-gaa.”
- The fourth gift was one that they all gave: Their worship. Their adoration. Their faith and belief. They had followed a star to where it had been foretold a newborn king would be.
- The outside of the package, the wrappings –though one might easily discard- were as important as what was on the inside. God was drawing all men to himself. He wasn’t waiting for Jesus to walk on water, to feed the five thousand or heal the 10 lepers. He was including non-Jews, non descendants of Israel in his story. This is Good news for us!
- Unless you trace your lineage back to a Jewish family and are faithful to the Jewish religion, or are a Jewish convert…you are considered a Gentile. But this is the good news of the coming of Jesus.
- John the Baptist clearly stated that God is not tied to the Jews alone. Jews who think they are OK with God and his promise because of their ethnicity, but then they don’t do as God says, John gives them a gut check here in Matthew 9:3
- 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” (Matthew 3:9 NIV)
Isaiah also speaks to this topic in Isaiah 56:6-8 ESV
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
Isaiah 56:6-8 ESV
- The Good news is the wrappings matter too. God drew the wisemen, not Jews, to worship him and present gifts of adoration before Jesus. Even though they were from afar, God still gathered them to himself.
- He didn’t leave them helpless at that point – He spoke to them in a dream. “Don’t go back to Herod. Go home by a different route.”
- This was their first recorded direct intervention from God in their lives. Learning about the prophecy of the star, the star appearing in the East, the faith to follow it and find the Christ Child. And God makes a direct message to them. Herod’s going to try and kill Jesus. Wisemen: take the long way back home.
That’s the wrappings. So easily discarded like the paper on the outside of the present box. We rip into it and toss it aside. But the wrappings matter.
Now let’s talk about Returns.
They say that Dec 26 is one of the worst days to go shopping. Lots of people go back to the stores where someone bought their gift and the gift recipient is trying to return it. Why do we ever return gifts? I found an article that states 5 reasons a gift might get returned.
5 reasons your gift might get returned
- Not the recipient’s taste (not a person’s style. This will mean it will only be used or worn (as the case may be) in your presence…not any other time. And only because of awkward guilt.)
- It’s the wrong size (check to make sure you actually have the right size. Don’t surprise them.) –
- This year I wanted to do something fun with our family, so we bought matching family pajamas. They are Red Plaid flannel Pajama pants and a long sleeve top with a fun penguin being all christmassy. The only problem with the PJ’s was when we got them home and I tried mine on, it was TOO big! That’s a good problem to have, but it resulted in me going straight back to the store and exchanging them for the size that worked better for me. I wasn’t waiting in line very long, but I did have to wait. Returning items can be such a hassle, but if you really don’t want something or it won’t fit, you are better off going and exchanging the item rather than just living with it.
- It will never be used (knick knacks collect dust…and they are destined for Goodwill.)
- It’s too personal (you don’t give silk boxers to just anyone.)
- It suggests that you think the recipient should change something about him or herself. (scales, exercise videos, grooming kits, weight loss or self help books)
Why do we have returns?
In short: what’s on the inside wasn’t what the person wanted:
It didn’t “fit,” didn’t look good, wasn’t the right color, or perhaps they already had 3 of them…(Maybe they’d rather have the money?)
Believe it or not, there’s a part in the Christmas story that we’d rather not keep. We’d prefer to gloss over it, not read it. Return to sender. Matthew 2:16-18
These verses come soon after the Wise Men get the message from God in a dream to return to their home country by a different route, to skip out on going back and unwittingly tadling to Herod about Jesus. Also after Joseph received a similar message in a dream, telling him to take his family and stay in Egypt until Herod dies.
Herod threatens Jesus’ life (takes many others.) Matt 2:16-18
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
Matthew 2:16-18 NIV
This act by King Herod ranks right up there with what Pharaoh did in Exodus, commanding that all Hebrew baby boys be killed or thrown into the nile. Here Herod, the supposed leader of the Jews, is committing infantcide on his own people!
By the way, the timing noted here is why many believe the Wise Men came later, potentially up to 2 years after the birth of Jesus. By the time Herod figures out he’s been had, the best he can do is take a “stab” in the dark and kill all the boys, two and under from the area where Jesus was born.
I don’t know about you, but I certainly would rather not think about pain and suffering, weeping and wailing of parents who’ve lost their children. But greif, just like joy, is a part of life and so cannot be ignored. Perhaps you’ve lost a loved one in the past few years and the wounds are still very fresh. You can relate to these “voices in Ramah.” Christmas is a time to recognize the parts of the story we’d rather weren’t there.
Perhaps this teaches us something about King Herod. His jealousy and wickedness were so insatiable that he would kill anyone who might be a threat to his seat of power. This gives us an excellent contrast to King Jesus. Though he was just a toddler when the wise men came, he would one day show the world what real leadership looks like. What real love, real friendship looks like.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
John 15:13 NIV
Conclusion
Wrappings matter because God was wrapped in something.
Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature a God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature b of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
Philippians 2: 6-7 NIV
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14 NIV
Wrappings matter.
But what about Returns? When Christmas time doesn’t turn out like you expect it, don’t toss it out the window with some great “Bah, Humbug!”
Ask, “What is God doing in the middle of this “less-than-desirable situation?”
For Jesus, God saved his life and the lives of his parents. Their obedience was tested and they passed. God spoke to the foreign gift bringers, warning them so clearly they also passed the obedience test. What was revealed in that horrible act of infantcide? The horrendous personal character of King Herod. He was not fit to be king and God would see to it that his reign would end.
But your situation is different than the one in the scripture, (at least I hope so!) No maniacal rulers of the land making broad sweeping decisions that end in the loss of life.
But whatever it is you are going through these days, know this: that you don’t have to skip over it. You don’t have to return it. You just need to remember this word from God from Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10 NIV
Viroqua Naz 